Dairy giant Fonterra is distancing itself from Danish products caught up in widespread Muslim protests and trade boycotts after the publication of cartoons of Mohammed.

Denmark was the first country to publish controversial caricatures of the Muslim prophet last September and the country has been hardest hit by the backlash.

Fonterra is remaining tight-lipped about any impact the publication of the cartoons in New Zealand might have had on its business, but Middle East reports say that some emails and fliers wrongly list Fonterra products as coming from Denmark.

Fonterra has published an ad in Middle East newspapers highlighting that Anchor milk powders are New Zealand-made.

The company is also involved in a joint venture with Danish dairy company Arla Foods which says the ongoing boycott of Danish products in the Middle East has so far cost it between STG40 million-STG50 million.

Arla says it is losing STG1 million a day as the Muslim world refuses to buy Danish goods in protest over the cartoons.

"Fonterra Co-operative Group Ltd is a leading multinational dairy company, owned by 11,600 New Zealand dairy farmers. We're the world's largest exporter of dairy products, exporting 95 percent of our production.

Our global supply chain encompasses our shareholders' farms in New Zealand through to customers and consumers in 140 countries. Collecting over 13 billion litres of milk a year, we manufacture and market over 2 million tonnes of dairy products annually, making us the world's leader in large-scale milk procurement, processing and management.

Our ingredients business is the largest dairy ingredients operation in the world, manufacturing and marketing more than 1,000 ingredient products to the international food industry under the NZMP brand."

6
posted on 02/08/2006 2:02:06 AM PST
by NZerFromHK
(Leftism is like honey mixed with arsenic: initially it tastes good, but that will end up killing you)

Guess I'll have to go out tomorrow and buy some export from Denmark to help 'take up the slack'...

Can't think of any "Product of New Zealand" that I use that I can stop buying to compensate for increasing my purchase of Danish products. unless you count Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies).

New Zealand: incredibly beautiful country full of foolish people and exceedingly foolish politicians.... I'll go there sometime for a long vacation if they, as a nation, ever decide to quit being silly, terorist loving, ignorant, socialist fools.

Give credit to where credit's due. New Zealand does promote free trade internationally, and we have abolished all industrial and agricultural subsidies.

But the downside is, coupled with pacifism and UN-fetishism we have a monster that looks weird (weasels, but promoting free trade). And by free trade the country seems to believe that "let's trade with everyone! And don't offend themn as long as "them" is not the United States!"

I think the closest analogue to the way this country acts on the international scene is perhaps Luxembourg.

11
posted on 02/08/2006 2:32:18 AM PST
by NZerFromHK
(Leftism is like honey mixed with arsenic: initially it tastes good, but that will end up killing you)

I'd love to spend a lot of time there.... Could even imagine living there...

But not as long as 'you' keep electing socialistic, naive fools to govern you and run your businesses.

(Almost as foolish as an America that elected Bill Clinton to the Presidency TWICE, and might elect his wife President next time. ;-)

I'll admit to stereotyping and exaggerating....

But really, (yourself and those like you excluded); just because your country is so geographically isolated and you have wonderful natural resources and many excellent, talented people living there, do you think that your political and business leaders can get away with such silliness in this day and age?

American conservatism has three interlated foundations: a committment to market forces, a belief on a principled and muscular foreign policy stand backed up by a credible military, and a Judeo-Christian moral stand on society - an alliance built by Reagan. Unfortuntaely this alliance doesn't exist in New Zealand and I think apart from market forces, there are no defence hawks in this country and pro-family voices are too minute to matter.

In theory, NZ may satisfy a number of people who call themselves libertarians: a pacifist self-loathing foreign and defence policies, and a socially liberal mindset, but with market forces on economic fields. As someone who is 3 out of 3 on the three foundations of American conservatism, sometimes you feel a bit lonely over here.

17
posted on 02/08/2006 3:29:50 AM PST
by NZerFromHK
(Leftism is like honey mixed with arsenic: initially it tastes good, but that will end up killing you)

" ... But the downside is, coupled with pacifism and UN-fetishism we have a monster that looks weird (weasels, but promoting free trade). And by free trade the country seems to believe that "let's trade with everyone! And don't offend themn as long as "them" is not the United States!""

You said a mouthful!

I never got over N.Zealand prohibiting our nuclear war ships from entering their ports.

I wonder what their view will be when and if the SHTF with all out war?

To expect Islamofanatics to properly differentiate between various western producer of goods is like being King Canute commanding the tide to go back. This is a clash of fanatical ignorance guided by hate against a different culture and values.

Ben Franklin put it in terms of either standing together or hanging separately. Rev Martin Niemöller expressed it as failing to protest when different groups were targeted until no one was left to defend him.

So for any western company to 'separate' itself from the targeted company/country is just to delay the attack until the crazies find something it is doing that offends TMOR (the most easily offended religion).

20
posted on 02/08/2006 5:15:26 AM PST
by SES1066
(Cycling to conserve, Conservative to save, Saving to Retire, will Retire to Cycle.)

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